Spoilers: Through season 9 up to Checkmate, maybe some Sacrifice too.
Summary: There are those that threaten Chloe and those she loves. Sequel to 'Baby Proofing'
Author Note: I have no Betas so all mistakes are entirely my own.
All comments and reviews are appreciated. They make me happy!
This is the final Chapter. Thank you to all who have been following. I hope this chapter does not disappoint
It had taken all of two minutes to have Agent Campbell and his team begin work on cracking the database. To say Tess was shocked to find out that Agent Campbell was in fact her ex-employee Stuart Campbell was an understatement. It was even more surprising considering the last time she saw him she had buried a bullet in his skull. It was understandable that he wasn't that happy to see her - if looks could kill she would be a dead woman.
Tess had been escorted personally by Waller to the Castle's command centre and as a result had a first hand account of their progress. It took them half an hour to crack through the first firewall, and only twenty minutes to breech through the second.
"We're close to getting through the third firewall." Campbell told Waller.
"Excellent." She turned to Tess and amused look on her face "It seems you may have come through for us after all Agent Mercer. There may be a place for you here at Checkmate yet."
"Thank you." Tess allowed herself to smile in return. This had been a near miss, she had been sloppy. She would have to be more careful in the future and prevent a 'next time'.
"Firewall down, we're downloading as we speak." Campbell announced.
The monitors around the room displayed the streams of information coming through the link. Occasionally Tess would recognise a photo flashing on the screen - Green Arrow, Black Canary, Impulse.
Suddenly the streaming froze and all of the screens turned green. Campbell rushed over to one of the consoles and began frantically typing.
A beep alerted Tess to the message on her phone. She swore her heart stilled as she read the five little words. Her hands began to shake as she realised what the message meant, looking at the chaos erupting in the room.
The message was from Oliver: 'I always keep my promises.'
24 Hours Ago
"Have you contacted anyone else?"
"I've let the league know about a potential breach. I've asked for Victor to come in. He's still in the city, he said he should be here in half an hour." Chloe answered.
"Victor?"
"While waiting for you to come over I had an idea, but I'll need help from the two of you to pull it off." Chloe bit her lip, her confidence started to waver "I also need your say on my decision, because I will need your full support. I need to know that I'm not about to fall off the edge to a place I can't come back from. I can't do this without you."
"Whatever it is, we'll do it together."
"You might not like this and you'll think I'm crazy, but it's all I can come up with."
"You've never led us wrong before. What's the plan sidekick?" He encouraged.
Chloe took a seat at her console before looking up into his patient face. She was about to ask for more than his trust. "We give Tess what she wants."
"Give up watchtower? Ok, not the answer I was expecting…"
"No, we give them what they think is watchtower's database. We set up a dummy, protect it as if it was the real thing. Maybe put a few genuine files in there that will do no damage in the wrong hands. Within the files we can place the computer equivalent of the Black Plague. "
"Hence why you need Victor's help."
"We can take out their system, wipe out everything they have on us and the league."
"It won't stop them from coming after us again."
"That's where the rest of our merry band of superheroes comes in. We raid Castle destroying any hardcopies we can find. J'onn plays an important part of what I want us to do. He told me that he had altered some of the White Queen's memories the last time they came against us. I want to ask him to do it again, but I want to make sure she doesn't even remember that watchtower has ever even existed."
"Is this the part that's having you doubt yourself?" Oliver knelt down to her level and took her small hands in his.
Chloe took in a calming breath before looking directly into his chocolate brown eyes. "No. It's the part where Checkmate gains access to the dummy database. When Tess hands over that information, and they discover it's a trap there's a very good chance they will kill her."
Oliver thought for a brief second before he gave Chloe his answer. "Tess has made her own decisions and she knew that there was a chance she would have to face the consequences of her actions. She's been playing with fire since she joined Checkmate and started her own private party with the Kandorians."
Chloe couldn't believe what she was saying. She felt as if they were planning a murder, but at the same time she felt no remorse over her plan. Tess had threatened her baby and Oliver. All she worried about was Oliver's perception of her. "But you're OK with us doing this? If we go through with it we might as well be pulling the trigger ourselves."
"It is her choice what she does with the information, she knows the risks she is taking by playing their game. We're just taking steps to defend ourselves, to defend our child. If she can't anticipate that then that is her mistake."
"So you don't think any less of me for this? I know she meant a lot to you."
"All past tense. I don't even know who she is anymore and this plan would never change how I feel about you. We're just doing what we need to do to protect our family." He gently threaded a hand through her hair before bringing her towards him, gently placing a kiss on the top of her head. "We've been left with no choice."
Chloe wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "So we're doing this?"
"Yes. But we're doing this together."
Present Day.
"We were set up! They've uploaded a virus into our mainframe and its eating our system from the inside out." Campbell was furiously typing on the keyboard, trying to halt the damage. It was clear he was fighting a losing battle.
"You didn't anticipate this?" Waller shouted at him.
"There was no way we could have known. It was embedded in the files within the database. They knew we were going to do this, they were prepared for this to happen today."
Tess' hands continued to shake. Oliver had played her, and he had done it so easily. She had trusted that he had given her the right information. She should have realised he wouldn't give up without a fight - it had all been too east. What she didn't know is how they managed to pull this off so quickly. She had to give them credit, Oliver certainly had an efficient team.
"Mercer." Tess saw the movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see Waller pointing the gun at her. "I'm afraid we are terminating your employment." She said before firing two shots directly into her chest.
Chloe felt sore. Ether guy had taken his time trying to 'coax' information from her the good old fashioned way. She could feel the sting of her broken lip, and her left eye was starting to close from the punches she had received.
Thankfully they had left her stomach left alone up to this point, but they had been working up to it. He had been about to deliver a blow to the gut when a phone call came through. He had been told to halt the 'interrogation' and she silently prayed that Tess had delivered.
All she could do was wait and time seemed to drag. From the dirty windows she could see that the sun was beginning to set. How long had she been gone? Her stomach seemed to grumble in response. 'What I wouldn't give for an Impulse delivered Mexican feast right now.' She thought.
Clark stood outside the warehouse. He knew that Chloe was inside, he didn't need to look through the wall, he could hear her heartbeat and the baby's. The expectant father stood opposite him, compound bow at the ready. If these men had harmed Chloe he knew that all the superpowers in the world would not be able to prevent Oliver from using lethal force.
Oliver held his finger to the comm piece in his ear, listening to the voice on the other side. "Impulse, Cyborg and our favourite Martian are all good to go. They're making their way into the Castle as we speak."
Using his x-ray vision Clark looked into the warehouse. "There are four armed guards in there, their guns are all on Chloe."
Four guards between the two of them would be easy. Oliver knocked an arrow into his bow ready. "Let's go get my girl."
Clark nodded before ripping the door from its hinges and throwing it across the room taking out the guard nearest to them. Three guns automatically swung in their direction as Oliver stepped into the room firing an arrow at Ether-guy, knocking him out with the tazer device.
"Arrow!" Seeing Oliver stand there in all his Green Arrow glory flooded Chloe's chest with relief, and if she was honest with herself a hint of arousal. She tried to tug on her restraints again desperate to wriggle free. Her movements were so frantic she barely felt the little popping sensation in her abdomen. She froze. 'Was that what I think it was?'
Clark sped towards the other two guards as one fired his gun at Oliver while the other swung his weapon in the direction of Chloe. Within the blink of an eye they were both unconscious on the floor and Clark had begun to tie their hands together.
Oliver knelt behind Chloe to undo the ropes binding her hands. Once she was released she threw herself into his arms. "You don't know how happy I am to see you!"
He wrapped his arms around her tightly automatically. "You scared me half to death, Sidekick. This is becoming a habit." Oliver said before he swept in for a crushing kiss.
Chloe felt as if the wind was knocked from her, the intensity of his lips meeting hers almost made her dizzy. And again she felt that strange popping sensation in her stomach.
Clark stood awkwardly watching the intimate display, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm going to…yeah, I'm just going to check on…I'm going outside. Check they're all gone." Even his super speed wasn't quick enough to get him out of that room. Watching Oliver kiss Chloe was like watching his parents make out. It was just one of those things you could never be comfortable with.
When the need to breathe became an issue Chloe and Oliver came up for air. "That's what I call a rescue." She smiled.
Oliver lightly brushed his fingertips over her swollen cheek. "I'm sorry I didn't get here quicker. I sent the others onto the Castle like you wanted, they're there as we speak cleaning up the mess."
"So we can go home? It's over?" She asked, staring up into his hood-covered face.
"Yeah, we can go. You're staying with me until we know this has all settled down. No moving just yet." He began leading her from the warehouse "I hope you don't mind travelling back by bike."
Chloe paused as they were about to pass Ether guy's still body. For good measure she gave him a swift, hard kick to the gut. The man groaned despite his unconsciousness earning Chloe a satisfied smirk from herself.
"Do I need to wake that guy and give him a beating of my own? "He asked. She didn't need for him to remove his hood to sense the scowl gracing his features. He had probably accurately guessed that this was the guy who carried out the 'interrogation'.
"No. It's all better now."
He led her outside to his bike to find Clark waiting beside it. She shrieked as she found herself hanging in the air as he brought her into a hug "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine…apart from the need to breathe Clark!" He quickly released her from the bear hug and lowered her feet back to the floor.
"You want me to get you back to Oliver's?" He asked while looking at the motorbike. He knew she had never liked those things.
"I'm ok. I just think I need to be near Ollie right now. I'm still a little shaken up."
"If you're sure." Chloe answered him with a nod " I think I'll meet up with the others then. Make sure everything's alright their end." And with that he ran off leaving Oliver to help Chloe onto the back of his bike.
Oliver didn't bother taking Chloe to watchtower, instead choosing to take her back to his apartment. He had expected some sort of resistance, especially as part of the league were still dealing with Checkmate, but she said nothing the whole way back.
He took off his glasses and his leather vest before digging out the first aid kit. "We'll get Emil to come by here to check you out. I don't want you leaving here for the next few days, just in case."
"You have no arguments from me." She sighed as she flopped down on to the sofa and kicked off her shoes. Exhaustion would be an understatement at this point.
He knelt in front of her with an anti-septic sodden gauze at the ready. "You know, that's what's scaring me. I'm starting to think you took a harder knock to the head than we thought."
Chloe winced as he began to clean up the scrapes on her face. "I've just had some time to think things through. About everything. Being held hostage by a group of government employed mercenaries kind of gives you a unique perspective on life."
"And what epiphanies came to you to bring out this frighteningly placid side of Chloe Sullivan?"
"That maybe I'm taking you for granted. I'm still trying to keep you at arm's length even though I know its not what either of us want. I love you but I'm still resisting us every step of the way."
Oliver looked up at her with wide eyes. "Wow. You weren't kidding about having too much time to think were you?"
"I'm serious. And after all that's happened today I've come to the conclusion that it could take even longer for us to properly secure my apartment. Really. I'm thinking it could take months. Years even." She looked hopefully into his face, hoping that he was registering her suggestion.
His facial expressions changed from confusion to surprise as it slowly dawned on him what she was trying to say. "Are you serious? You want to stay?"
"Yeah. If you don't mind us being here. I might even get around to unpacking a couple of those boxes."
"You know it would have saved us a lot of trouble if you had just agreed to move in with me in the first place, sidekick." His broad grin ruined his attempt at frustration.
"When have we ever done things the easy way?" She asked as she took his hand in hers and kissed him gently on the lips. Before she could take the kiss any deeper there was another popping sensation in her stomach.
"Oh my god. I think…I think that's the baby kicking!" A megawatt smile of her own spread across her face.
Oliver immediately placed his hands on her stomach, hoping to feel a kick. Chloe actually giggled. "I think it's a little early for you to be able to feel anything, Ollie."
"Doesn't stop me trying." He smiled back before leaning forward and hovering his mouth just above her stomach "Go on, kick for daddy."
"You know, I think baby's already been doing that. I felt it the first time when you walked into the warehouse. It seems like whenever you're around I'm getting nudged."
His head snapped up to look at her. "Really? That's just…that's just…wow."
"I think this baby classifies as the Green Arrow's youngest fan."
"Good, because if this baby had started to root for The Blur there would have had issues. I'd have to find some green meteor rock to kick boy scout's ass."
She held her hand to his cheek, smiling at the seriousness of his rant. "I love you."
"Good. Because I love you." He sat himself next to her on the sofa and slid an arm around her shoulders, holding her close to him. "In fact, once Emil has given you the all clear I fully intend on showing you how much I love you."
"I'd put that thought on hold Romeo. We're going to have half the league running through here shortly, and I don't feel up to being quite that intimate in public."
"I'll make you a compromise then. How about I run you a bath, order in some food while you check in on the guys?"
"Now that sounds like a good compromise to me." She smiled as she took his comm link from him. Looking into his smiling face she just knew that everything was going to be alright. Whatever life threw their way they would be fine, as long as they faced it together.